Idle? Idol!

1 Corinthians 10:12-14

12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Examine / Explain

The examples of idolatry before the verse show what happens to those who worship idols. So, let us be mindful of idol worship. Because we will think we can withstand whatever comes our way while we have our trust misplaced. We will be overtaken by temptation and sin. But God will provide us with an escape from temptation.

How do I apply this to my life?

First, I must understand that “God doesn’t give me more than I can handle.” It is not the same as God providing escape to endure temptation. I have never seen “God doesn’t give me more than I can handle.” If that were true, where would my faith fall? Would I actually rely on God if I knew I could always handle life? No. That would be idolatry. My faith would be in something, more than likely myself, other than God. We are to flee idolatry. We must take the escapes that are provided. The problem is that we love sin. We love to be “masters of our universe.” So we ignore the escapes and plow through straight to the sin. We also don’t reach out to our support in moments of weakness. If we could handle everything, would we sin? We must get over ourselves and know that we can’t do this life alone. We are dependent on God for everything. And there is nothing wrong with that. There is nothing weak about a full reliance on God. Does that mean I get lazy or apathetic to life and wait for God to feed me like the birds? That isn’t right either. If a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat. We must till the ground and sweat while we are here. PUT IN THE WORK! And remember, your work doesn’t save you! They are an expression of gratitude for salvation. We get to tell others about the Gospel. We get to work unto the Lord in our everyday lives. We get to serve others. Our perspectives are all wrong. In looking out of number one, who is the one? Us? Wrong. God is number one, and how we look out for Him is serving others.

What is my response?

Father, I know some people see me with a servant’s heart. But I know myself, and I am a selfish human. I don’t always want to serve others. Do I lift myself higher than them? Am I making my pride an idol? If so, crush it! Whatever is in the way that I put before You must be destroyed. Not put aside, not put down, but obliterated! If I set it aside, I will want to pick it up again. And I will go from temptation to sinning against You. I need you to expose the idols in my life. That’s a scary statement… Do I really want You to do that? Do I have a choice? One way or another, truth will always come out. I would rather expose idols and crushing temptations than being exposed in sin and crushed by failure. Amen